Washington City, 1862
During the bone-biting cold of an early January morning he headed quickly up Pennsylvania Avenue on his way to the White House, all the while passing shivering groups of ragged slaves, fur-bedecked gents and their ladies dodging hawkers, and whores hectoring and soliciting the Union soldiers guarding Washington City. In the distance across the Potomac River the glowing watch fires of Confederate soldiers mustering and massing in Virginia were visible to many who peered through spyglasses or perched atop hillsides and even to President Lincoln himself from his vantage point on the second floor of the White House.
As he reached the white-columned south portico that led to the public entrance of the president’s office, a guard blocked his way. But upon seeing the soldier in Union blue—with no weapon drawn and no threat apparent—and as he identified himself as Third Artillery captain William Andrew Winder, seeking an audience with Pres. Abraham Lincoln—the guard let him pass. It was easy then, as almost anyone could drop in on Abraham Lincoln to plead for the life of a deserter-son doomed to execution, to listen to a long, folksy story, or to swear loyalty to the man and the war that had divided the capital, where spies from both sides skulked and fears of an invasion by Confederate troops beset city residents.
Finally inside the Executive Office, Capt. William A. Winder, the son of a Confederate general whose last name was well known to Union authorities, told the president that he had recently been transferred to the front with Company M from Fortress Alcatraz, a craggy, fog-bound San Francisco army post and prison where secessionist sympathizers were held. Captain Winder’s purpose for this urgent visit was clear. He’d come to swear his allegiance to the Union, to the president himself. He asked that, as his company was already in Washington City awaiting postings to the front, he might be permitted to stay with them and, for the love of God, not be sent back to Alcatraz.
Although Lincoln was seemingly receptive to the captain’s plea, could William A. Winder, or any Winder, be trusted? His two civilian uncles had been jailed for treason in Washington City and New York. He was the first-born son of a Confederate general and had a half brother and two cousins already serving in Richmond. Perhaps worse, President Lincoln and his war secretary, Edwin Stanton, had heard rumors of treasonous statements made by the captain to a Pinkerton spy posing as a Confederate courier just after he’d arrived in Washington City. Perhaps the rumors were true.